The boys and girls indoor track teams began their seasons on Saturday, Dec. 8, with a dual meet against league opponent Murdock High School. The girls team came away with a 52-39 victory while the boys team, hamstrung by a number of absences, suffered a 69-22 defeat.
Each MIAA indoor track meet features 11 different events, with the top three places in each event being awarded five points, three points and one point respectively (in relay events the winning team is awarded 5 points). As a result, 91 points are awarded in each meet and 46 points are needed for a victory. Bromfield athletes won a total of eight events Saturday, which accounted for 40 of the 64 combined points scored by the two teams.
Although the margin of victory for the girls team was 13 points, the meet was close until the end. Going into the final two running events, the 4×200-meter relay and 4×400-meter relay, Bromfield led by just three points, 42 to 39. Victories in both of those events by the teams of Leila Grant, Annie Segaloff, Marley Ferguson, and Courtney Route in the 4×200 and Dharma Cooper, Olivia Blair, Ferguson, and Maible Daly in the 4×400 secured all 10 possible points and the overall win.
“It was a great start to the season,” said head Coach Jonathan Route. “We got the performances we wanted.” The team’s goal is to perform well at the big end-of-the-season meets. “I think we are right on track for that.”
Leading up to the relays, the meet had gone back and forth with Bromfield taking a 23-13 lead after four events before Murdock tied the meet at 36 through six events. In those six events, the Trojans got points from Molly Squire and Kaitlyn Ostrowski in the 2 mile; Claire Stoddard and Route in the 55-meter hurdles; Liza Toll in the 55-meter dash; Tessa McClain and Hannah Beckman in the mile run; and Squire in the 600-meter run.
Bromfield also received scoring from Kathryn Iacomini and Blair in the shot put, Toll in the 300, as well as McClain and Beckman in the 1,000-meter run. By the end of the day, 14 out of 18 girls had also achieved lifetime bests in at least one event.
ACT and SAT testing prevented a number of the athletes on the boys team from competing at the meet, putting Bromfield at a disadvantage. As head Coach Greg Bourque noted, “That’s a big hit to the team’s performance and … resulted in a sizable numbers swing. We were also missing a few younger athletes who certainly would have had an impact on the final score.” Nevertheless, those athletes who were present put on a very strong showing. Led by junior Will Squire, who scored 15 of the team’s 22 points, all seven of the boys who participated achieved lifetime bests in their respective events. Also scoring points for the Trojans were Dallas Briggs-Adams in the 600- and 1,000-meter runs and Jordan Colon in the 300-meter run.
All in all, 21 out of 25 Bromfield athletes finished the day with at least one new lifetime best. The next meet on the schedule was a league competition against Littleton High School on Wednesday, Dec. 12 at Fitchburg High School starting at 6 p.m.
Ellis Toll is a Bromfield graduate, assistant track coach, and a teacher at the Bromfield School.
